Bonjour! My name is Jean Piaget. I am best known as a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher. I'm viewed by many as the "Father of Developmental Psychology," because of my influential theories of intellectual/cognitive development.
I was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland. I was the eldest son of Arthur Piaget and Rebecca Jackson. When I was young, I was very interested in biology and the natural world. At ten years old, I was very fascinated with mollusks. My fascination intrigued me to go to the local museum of natural history and I stared at specimens for hours and hours. I even wrote to the curator of the museum to ask for permission to look at there collection of mollusks after hours. At ten, I also wrote my first short scientific paper on the albino sparrow. As a teen, I'm not trying to brag, but I had become a great expert on the field of mollusks and published many other papers on the field.
I attended the University of Neuchatel, where I received a degree in zoology, I also attended the University of Zurich, where I studied psychology for a semester, and later, I studied abnormal psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris. A year after I started working in child psychology (1922), I met and married my wife Valentine Chatenay. Three years later, my first daughter, Jacueline, was born. In 1927, my second daughter, Lucienne, was born, and in 1931 my first son, Laurent, was born. Below is a picture of my beau famille!
Retrieved on Jan. 17
Over my six-decade career in child psychology, I identified four stages of cognitive development:
Retrieved on Jan. 17
SENSORIMOTOR STAGE: During infancy thought is non-symbolic. Infants understanding of the world is based on their sensory experiences and their actions. Ages from birth to two years old.
0-1 month: Some reflexes start to come under voluntary control (ex. grasping and sucking)
1-4 months: Primary Circular Reactions: infants repeat simple actions that focus on their bodies (ex. opening and closing fists or kicking their feet)
4-8 months: Secondary Circular Reactions: infants repeat simple actions that focus on objects (ex. shaking a rattle, kicking a mobile, dropping a toy)
9-10 months: Object Permanence (pg 44): Infants now know that objects continue to exist when they are not visibly present; this is the first sign of symbolic thought emerging (ex. infants will now look for a hidden object; before that, out of sight, out of mind (like the object didn't exist; won't cry, won't look for it or point.))
11-17 months: Increased mobility allows for greater exploration of the environment.
18-24 months: Transition to my Preoperational Stage: Symbolic thought is beginning. (exs. language, pretend play/symbolic play, and deferred imitation (see or hear something and store it in memory and repeat it at a later time))
PREOPERATIONAL STAGE: During early childhood thought is symbolic, but illogical. Ages from two to seven years old.
Thought is symbolic, but illogical.
Thought is becoming internalized and more efficient.
Very curious, asks a lot of questions.
Trying to figure things out, but are fooled by appearance and sometimes reach illogical conclusions.
Examples of illogical thought:
Animism: Attribute human qualities to non-living things; idea that anything that moves is alive.
Classify Along One Dimension-Categorizes: Cannot
Egocentrism: Inability to take the perspective of another; think everyone experience the world as they do (ex. 3 Mountains Task )
Children in this stage do not realize that physical properties, such as volume or number, are invariant; they believe that if you change the appearance you change the property. (Cannot conserve!)
3. CONCRETE OPERATION STAGE: During middle childhood thought is logical, but concrete. Ages from seven to eleven.
Can understand cause and effect reasoning.
But they are still not able to think abstractly or hypothetically.
Their reasoning is tied to things they are familiar with or have experienced.
Transition to this stage is gradual.
They understand that physical properties, such as number and volume are invariant and that changing the appearance does not change the property. (Can conserve! pg 48) Reversibility
Age 5-7 shift.
They are draw logical conclusions when presented with partial information. (Can understand inferences)
decrease in animism
can categorize or classify along more than one dimension
decrease in egocentrism
4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE: during adolescence and adulthood thought is abstract and hypothetical. Ages from twelve and up.
I believe the major transition in thought is the ability to think abstractly and hypothetically.
At this stage, they can now reason logically about abstract or hypothetical situations or things they are not familiar with.
Can think about the future and plan ahead. I believe this is important when establishing a sense of identity!
I also believed that even though they are in this stage, they still needed to revise their knowledge base.
Self motivators.
Can learn from reading and trying out new ideas, as well as from helping friends and adults.
I believed that not everyone reaches this stage of development.
My theory is sometimes described as ‘genetic epistemology.’ ‘Genetic’ because I believed that the stages we progress through and the structures and processes we use, are essential for all of us regardless of culture. ‘Epistemology’ means the study of knowledge. Basically, I believed that the way in which we learn about and adapt to our World is constant across all cultures and races, and proceeds as a set sequence in all. I was interested not only in the nature of thought, butwas interested not only in the nature of thought, but in how it develops and understanding how genetics impact this process.
Retrieved by Jan. 21
I took ideas from biology, psychology, and philosophy and I studied the process by which children learn about the world. I worked with my children and other children on how they reason and how they think about the world. My theory of how children learn is through actions on objects and exploration of the environment. They are active learners. I suggested that children sort the knowledge they acquire through there experiences and interactions into groupings known as schemas (pg. 44).
I had two goals one was to answer the question: How does knowledge grow? And I came up with that the growth of knowledge is a progressive construction of logically embedded structures overriding one another by a process of inclusion of lower less powerful logical means in higher and more powerful ones up to adulthood. Therefore, children's logic and modes of thinking are, at first, entirely different from those of adults.
“The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered.”
In 1979, I was awarded the Balzan Prize for Social and Political Sciences. A year later at age 84, I died from unknown causes in Geneva, Switzerland.
Also here's a nice little website I found called the Jean Piaget Society maybe if you all are curious to know more about myself.
Bonjour! My name is Jean Piaget. I am best known as a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher. I'm viewed by many as the "Father of Developmental Psychology," because of my influential theories of intellectual/cognitive development.
I was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland. I was the eldest son of Arthur Piaget and Rebecca Jackson. When I was young, I was very interested in biology and the natural world. At ten years old, I was very fascinated with mollusks. My fascination intrigued me to go to the local museum of natural history and I stared at specimens for hours and hours. I even wrote to the curator of the museum to ask for permission to look at there collection of mollusks after hours. At ten, I also wrote my first short scientific paper on the albino sparrow. As a teen, I'm not trying to brag, but I had become a great expert on the field of mollusks and published many other papers on the field.
I attended the University of Neuchatel, where I received a degree in zoology, I also attended the University of Zurich, where I studied psychology for a semester, and later, I studied abnormal psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris. A year after I started working in child psychology (1922), I met and married my wife Valentine Chatenay. Three years later, my first daughter, Jacueline, was born. In 1927, my second daughter, Lucienne, was born, and in 1931 my first son, Laurent, was born. Below is a picture of my beau famille!
Over my six-decade career in child psychology, I identified four stages of cognitive development:
3. CONCRETE OPERATION STAGE: During middle childhood thought is logical, but concrete. Ages from seven to eleven.
- Can understand cause and effect reasoning.
- But they are still not able to think abstractly or hypothetically.
- Their reasoning is tied to things they are familiar with or have experienced.
- Transition to this stage is gradual.
- They understand that physical properties, such as number and volume are invariant and that changing the appearance does not change the property. (Can conserve! pg 48) Reversibility
- Age 5-7 shift.
- They are draw logical conclusions when presented with partial information. (Can understand inferences)
- decrease in animism
- can categorize or classify along more than one dimension
- decrease in egocentrism
4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE: during adolescence and adulthood thought is abstract and hypothetical. Ages from twelve and up.
My theory is sometimes described as ‘genetic epistemology.’ ‘Genetic’ because I believed that the stages we progress through and the structures and processes we use, are essential for all of us regardless of culture. ‘Epistemology’ means the study of knowledge. Basically, I believed that the way in which we learn about and adapt to our World is constant across all cultures and races, and proceeds as a set sequence in all. I was interested not only in the nature of thought, but was interested not only in the nature of thought, but in how it develops and understanding how genetics impact this process.I took ideas from biology, psychology, and philosophy and I studied the process by which children learn about the world. I worked with my children and other children on how they reason and how they think about the world. My theory of how children learn is through actions on objects and exploration of the environment. They are active learners. I suggested that children sort the knowledge they acquire through there experiences and interactions into groupings known as schemas (pg. 44).
I had two goals one was to answer the question: How does knowledge grow?
And I came up with that the growth of knowledge is a progressive construction of logically embedded structures overriding one another by a process of inclusion of lower less powerful logical means in higher and more powerful ones up to adulthood. Therefore, children's logic and modes of thinking are, at first, entirely different from those of adults.
“The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered.”
In 1979, I was awarded the Balzan Prize for Social and Political Sciences. A year later at age 84, I died from unknown causes in Geneva, Switzerland.
Also here's a nice little website I found called the Jean Piaget Society maybe if you all are curious to know more about myself.
References/Links/Videos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
http://www.nndb.com/people/359/000094077/
http://www.biography.com/people/jean-piaget-9439915?page=2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyJzvZiCpgo
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/75488-the-principle-goal-of-education-in-the-schools-should-be